LAWTON CHURCH OF GOD, LAWTON OKLAHOMA

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CHAPTER 5

CHEERFULNESS

GOD BLESS the cheerful person, man, woman, or child! Would to God there were more cheerfulness and not so much gloom! Over and above every other social trait stands cheerfulness. What the sun is to nature, what the stars are to night, what God is to the stricken heart that knows how to lean upon him, are cheerful persons in the house and by the wayside. Man recognizes the magic of a cheerful influence in woman more quickly and more willingly than the potency of dazzling genius, of commanding worth, or even of enslaving beauty.

If we are cheerful and contented, all nature smiles with us, the air seems more balmy, the sky more clear, the ground has a brighter green, the trees have a richer foliage, the flowers are more fragrant, the birds sing more sweetly, and the sun, moon, and stars all appear more beautiful.

Cheerfulness! How sweet in infancy, how lovely in youth, how saintly in age! There are some noble natures whose very presence carries sunshine with them wherever they go. How such a face enlivens every other face it meets, and carries into every company vivacity and joy and gladness! Look at the bright side.

Keep the sunshine of a living faith in the heart. Do not let the shadow of discouragement and despondency fall on your path. However weary you may be, the promises of God will never cease to shine like the stars of night to cheer and strengthen. A hopeful spirit will discern the silver lining of the darkest cloud. The times may he hard, but it will make them no easier to wear a gloomy and sad countenance. It is the sunshine and not the cloud that makes the flowers. Let us try, then, to be the sunshiny members of the family who have the inestimable art of making all duty seem pleasant, all self-denial and exertion easy and desirable, even disappointment not so blank and crushing.

Have you not known people within whose influence you felt cheerful, amiable, and hopeful—equal to anything? Oh for that blessed power and for God’s grace to exercise it rightly! I do not know a more enviable gift than the power to diffuse around us an atmosphere of cheerfulness, piety, truthfulness, generosity, magnanimity. Reader, covet this grace.